Reliability Bathtub Curve
Figure 1 shows a typical time versus failure rate curve for equipment.
Reliability bathtub curve. Wilkins retired hewlett packard senior reliability specialist currently a reliasoft reliability field consultant this paper is adapted with permission from work done while at hewlett packard. The bathtub curve is widely used in reliability engineering it describes a particular form of the hazard function which comprises three parts. The second part is a constant failure rate known as random failures. Despite its limitations in modeling the failure rates of typical industrial machines the bathtub curve is a useful tool for explaining the basic concepts of reliability engineering.
A plot of the failure rate over time for most products yields a curve that looks like a drawing of a bathtub. The much maligned bathtub curve. The origination of the curve is not clear but it appears that it was based on continue reading why the drain in the bathtub curve matters. 15 11 is perhaps the most famous graphical representation in the field of reliability plotted is the failure rate h t versus time the resulting curve describes not only the behavior of engineering components but also the lifetimes of human populations.
This is the well known bathtub curve which over the years has become widely accepted by the reliability community. A typical electronic s life cycle bathtub curve is shown in figure 1. Instead the curve describes the relative failure rate of an entire population of products over time. It is characterized by three regions in time.
If enough units from a given population are observed operating and failing over time it is relatively easy to compute week by week or month by month estimates of the failure rate h t. The third part is an increasing failure rate known as wear out failures. It has proven to be particularly appropriate for electronic equipment and systems. The bathtub curve is a plot of failure rate vs.
Weibull distribution is a versatile mathematical function that can represent all three sections of the bathtub curve typically using only two adjustable parameters β and η. Most reliability engineers are familiar with the life cycle bathtub curve the shape of the hazard rate or risks of failure of a electronic product over time. The first part is a decreasing failure rate known as early failures. Figure 1 shows how they are related to the reliability bathtub curve.
The bathtub curve named for its shape and shown in fig. The bathtub curve and product failure behavior part one the bathtub curve infant mortality and burn in. The three sections of the bathtub curve early fail useful life and wear out often have different shapes for failure distributions as illustrated in the figure.